HUDSON VALLEY WRITERS CENTER GALA CELEBRATED 30th ANNIVERSARY

The Hudson Valley Writers Center (HVWC) hosted its annual gala on Friday, November 2, celebrating its 30th year. The lively evening supported the many valued community outreach programs, classes, and readings that the Center offers to the Hudson Valley.

“We enjoyed reminiscing on our thirty years and looking ahead the next chapters to come,” said Donald W. Stever, Chairman of the Board. “This year, we have revised our mission, launched a new website and logo, and are committed to bringing quality, innovative programming and readings to our local literary community and beyond.”

At the gala, HVWC premiered a film by Sleepy Hollow High School student and award-winning filmmaker Oscar Pak. The film kicked off the Foundation for the Future campaign, which will literally support the HVWC with necessary structural improvements to the historical Philipse Manor Railroad station. The film can be viewed online at bit.ly/futurehvwc.

Stever continued, “Our three honorees are important to our literary community as well as the region which we call home.” The gala honored novelist and screenwriter Michael Cunningham; journalist and HVWC memoir instructor Susan Hodara; and local businesswoman and former HVWC Board Member Angelina Mak.

The HVWC was honored to receive Proclamations from State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, and Sleepy Hollow Mayor Ken Wray to all honorees as well as to the Center on its 30th anniversary, accepted by founders Margo and Don Stever.

Michael Cunningham is best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Other novels include Golden States, A Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood, Specimen Days, By Nightfall and The Snow Queen. He is also the author of the 2015 short story collection A Wild Swan and Other Tales, as well as the 2002 work of nonfiction Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown, as well as the screenplays to A Home at the End of the World and Evening. Cunningham is a senior lecturer of English and creative writing at Yale University.

Susan Hodara is a freelance journalist, memoirist, and beloved instructor at HVWC. Her articles have appeared in publications including the New York Times, Communication Arts, Harvard Magazine, and others. As a memoirist, she writes about her past and present. Her pieces have been published in a variety of anthologies and literary journals. In the collaborative memoir Still Here Thinking of You: A Second Chance With Our Mothers, Vicki Addesso, Joan Potter, Lori Toppel, and Hodara reconsider their relationships with their mothers. She teaches three very popular memoir classes each week at the Writers Center.

Angelina Mak has been with the Center since its early years, as a longtime board member, volunteer and dear friend. A former franchise owner of two Baskin Robbins stores, Mak is currently a consultant to Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Donuts.

The Gala took place at the Tappan Hill Mansion located on the former estate of Mark Twain. The night featured live music from Sleepy Hollow's own young jazz stars, the Leah Scarpati Trio.

There was also a live and silent auction for many desirable items and memberships from area businesses and organizations. All of the profits support the HVWC’s mission of bringing literary enrichment to the Hudson Valley.

For more information, visit writerscenter.org/gala

PHOTOS: courtesy of Liflander Photography
Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Honoree Susan Hodara and Honoree Michael Cunningham.
Angelina Mak at the podium at the HVWC gala.